The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1887-08-02

A Novice Apt to Miss.
Houston boasts of quite a large number
of NimrOds who go out almost daily To
hunt prairie chickens and other game.
Prairie chicken shooting has the prefer
ence over most hunting sport, for the rea-
son that it requires carefully trained dogs
and sufficient practice with the gun to
shoot upon the wing without moments
warning. The prairie chicken is an &C
COmmOdating bird and may be hunted In
pleasant weather; this fact may partly &C
count for the ardor with which it is pur-
sued Chicken shooting, however, is
fascinating sport in itself, the same being
very strong of wing, and exceedingly pal
atable. Daylight find the hunters-fOr
they generally, like their dogs, hunt i'll
pairS-leaving the farm house where they
have passed the night. At the word of
command the dogs leap into the wagon,
and a few moments drive brings the
hunters to q likely field" The hunters
aliRht, slip a cartridge into each barrel Of
their guns and turn into the field. The
dogs are eager for the sport to begin,
and at the words "Hunt 'em up" and a
wave of the hand spring out into the
stubble at full speed, one hunter and one
dog to each side OF the field. The dogs
work from the edge of the field to the cen
ter, cross, keep on to the other edge, re
turn and cross again, covering the field in
ever varying and irregular circles. Now
and then one pauses and snuffs the wind
blowing down the field, or turns quickly
aside from his course and follows up for
few yards an old scent in the hope Of find
ing it grow stronger.
HERE THEY ARE"
Suddenly one Of them, running at full
speed in long, elastic bounds, with ear
and tail waving as he leaps, falls fat on
his belly as if paralyzed and remains
motionless as a stone. Quick as Is the
movement, the other dog has also crouched
and is pointing at the first dog, backing
him up" with implicit confidence, though
the scent may not have reached mis- keen
nostrils The sagacious animals turn
their heads and look back at their mas
ters with intelligent eyes, as if to say:
Hurry up; here they areW The men
move rapidly and nOiselessly up to the
first dog The intelligent animal, who
has not moved muscle, except to turn
his head and look back, rises slowly and
cronchingly to his feet, and with nose eX-
tended steals slowly forward, Intelligence
and wary caution expressed in every
movement Of his eloquent body. His feet
are lifted and put down like paws OF
velvet. and his progress is noiseless and as
true as the needle of the pole. The hunt
ers follow carefully close behind, guns
cooked and ready for use.
Down goes the dog as though shot dead,
and this time he does not dare to look back,
tremor of his body giving warning that ne
can go no further without walking into
the Covey. The men take one, two steps
whiz, whirr three birds rise-tWO TO the
left one to the right. Bang bang bang!
The man on the right kills his bird, the
man on the left kills with the first barrel
and misses with his second barrel.
Neither hunters nor dog stir step. The
left hand man breaks his gun, draws out
discharged shells and slips fresh ones IN
their place While he is loading up rises
a fourth chicken, this time to the left.
The right hand man knocks 1t over, and
at the discharge of his gun the chickens
rise on all sides. The left hand man gets
in both barrels and knocks down two
birds. They reload, and the dog is told to
"hunt 'em up
WILDLY EXCITING SPORT.
If the birds are plenty and the stubbles
| in good condition, the chances are that a
| covey will be in each stubble field. Hunters
! often draw blank" as they term it, and
| sometimes two coveys are found in one
| field. The coyeys vary widely in size;
sometimes as many as thirty or forty birds
| are found together, and sometimes an old
! cock is found alone with field all to him
| self The chickens in different coveys also
behave differently. At times they will get
! I'D singly, and in such case two shooters
! will get nearly the whole covey. At other
! times the whole COvey Will rise together,
! and it requires quick and skiiIfuI shooting
! to make each of the four barrels count II
! the country and flight of the birds allow,
| il is sometimes possible to mark down" a
/ cOvey and follow them from field to field,
/ unless they fly into the corn, when pursuit
| is hopeless.
To a novice the sport is wildly exciting.
! The intelligent and admirable working Oh
| the dogs the intense excitement OF the
| moment when the birds are rising with
/ the noise and speed of a skyrocket from
the stubbIe beneath their very feet, and
| the exhilaratiou of a successful shot give
| it a fascination hard to describe to those
who have not tried it. The novice,
| although he may be good shot at other
! kinds of birds, is very apt to miss his first
! haIf-dozen birds. They rise too near him
| and look so large that it does not look
possible to miss a bird, and he is very apt
| to shoot without aim. After few misses
] however he finds that they fly like an eX-
nress train. and must be covered by the
J sights of the gun, and quickly, too
| After that his luck improves, and he finds
that, like everything else, it is easy when
Won know how, and one of the most
| fascinating of all field spOrts.-HoustOH
| (TeX.l Post. A
Foundation of the Armour Fortune.
The Armours, by the way, arc the las
peOple in the world to disregard dream
and visions, for it is related that the.
made their first money on information Oh
tanned in that way. While Phil Armour
and Plaukington were yet modest butcher
in Milwaukee. the former had dream il
which was indicated to him line o
operations in which there would be larg
profit. He related his experience to hi
partner the next morning, and receives
the answer, that's just what I've beel
thinking for a week The pointer wa
followed up and resulted in pront q
nearly n million, which was divided oe
, tween them, and was the foundation G
4 f-nr.ar La ~